Outside source in 2018. Happy new year. The middle eastern editor jeremy bowen has just arrived on set, so you can contact us with any questions for him. After six days of Anti Government protests in iran, and the deaths of 22 people, its Supreme Leader has spoken. We have also heard from the Us Ambassador to the un. Here are both of them. Translation following recent events the enemies have united to create problems for the islamic republic, using all their weapons. We all know thats complete nonsense. The demonstrations are completely spontaneous. They are virtually in every city in iran. This is the precise picture of a long and oppressed people rising up against their dictators. Nikki haley also said washington wants an emergency meeting of the un security council. These demonstrations started on thursday in irans second largest city, mashhad. You can see it there in the north east. But by saturday, many more people and places were involved, including the capital, tehran. Its worth noting that on saturday there was also another demonstration in tehran but this one was sanctioned by the authorities and commemorated the defeat of the 2009 protest movement. But lets stay focused on the Anti Government protests, and the most important question, why are they happening now . This is the view of one analyst. If you go back to may of this year, when Hassan Rouhani was re elected with a landslide 2a million voters backing him, they voted for him because he made a simple but powerful promise. He said, when im re elected there will be more Political Freedoms in this country. He hasnt delivered on that, at all. In fact, what hes done is turned away from the reformist grass movements and turned to the hardliners. Remember president rouhani has also repeatedly promised to fix the iranian economy, and there is undoubtedly work to do. The cost of living is going up, unemployment is at 11 , and double that among young people. Bear that in mind, as we look at this from reuters. 2796, 27 , that statistic. This is a runs deputy interior minister. Bbc monitoring watches the worlds media its been studying footage of the protests. In a recent briefing, it notes, the diversity of slogans illustrate the absence of a coherent message or aim of the demonstrations, which also completely lack leaders. They tell us. That may be, but the authorities are taking them seriously. There have been more than a50 arrests in tehran province. And messaging apps like telegram are being restricted. Heres the tech commentator Mahsa Alimardani on that decision. This platform is for communicating between family members, friends, getting information from thy aspera persian media or from getting information from thy aspera persian media orfrom local media, and just getting everyday updates like traffic and whether it is very centralised to this one platform, so when the block occurred there has been a rush to, you know, get on to connect to this device that you previously didnt have to. If you want to read more about the role social media is playing in iran right now, theres a piece by mahsa on the politico website now. Next, to bbc persiansjiyar gol. For a sense of the government response. In sensitive areas they have placed those security forces, but despite all of this we have received footage that shows gatherings of people, but those apps where people were communicating and sending messages, and footage to us has been limited and blocked. What are you hearing from your contacts about the motivation of these demonstrators . Is this aboutjust improving living standards, or is it about something more fundamental . I think it is about much more than just the economy yes, it started with the economic situation. They were angry about employment, inflation, and whats going on in the country, but as days passed some of those protesters became political. Some other groups, university students, teachers, workers, some activists, theyjoined them and the slogans became more political and people for example, one of the slogans was, why is iran spending billions and billions of dollars in countries like lebanon, like yemen, like syria, yet their own people are, many of them, living in abject poverty . Why is that money not being invested in the country, invested in creating jobs for young people . As you would expect donald trump has been tweeting about what has been happening in iran, here he is saying the people of iran are finally acting against the corrupt and brutal iranians regime. He goes say these people have little food and no human rights. America is watching. There wasnt much chance of iran reacting well to that. The reality is that the us has very little leverage on iran, and President Trump has very little credibility inside the country, given the fact that he imposed the travel ban very early on in his administration, that primarily targeted the iranian citizens, who have never been involved in any acts of terrorism in the us. So i doubt that his words would have that much traction within the population, but they will certainly be exploited by the government to portray the protesters as foreign lackeys. Europes approach appears to be different to this than the usa. This is from patrick wintour, and he also says as well is this the French Foreign minister is supposed to be going to tehran on friday but made the load. I have news for you on that, because this is writers telling us that is exactly what will happen. The french presidency has confirmed that after call with president rouhani the foreign minister will not be going there any more. That is some of the international reaction, and we have to see all of this in the context of a runs complex relationships in the middle east. This is philippa thomas, explaining. Iran isa thomas, explaining. Iran is a predominantly shia muslim state and its growing sphere of influence across the middle east has ended many enemies. None greater than sunni saudi arabia. The two matt cava naugh diplomatic than sunni saudi arabia. The two Matt Cavanaugh diplomatic ties and are suspicious of each others drawing power in the region. They are facing off against each other in are facing off against each other in a number of proxy conflicts. Iran has close ties with lebanon, especially the Political Party hezbollah and its militia force. Iran provides them with millions of dollars in supplies and weaponry, but in november the Saudi Arabian crowned prince backed efforts to undermine hezbollah in beirut, and boost the lebanese Prime Minister. Saudi arabia and iran face off in another proxy war in the region in yemen. A Saudi Led Coalition is fighting the houthi rebels, but tehran baxter houthis, who were in a form of alliance against the former president against the sunnis, and when they switched sides and sought peace, he was killed. Irans hatred of israel is well known, with no diplomatic ties. Doesnt even recognise the jewish state, diplomatic ties. Doesnt even recognise thejewish state, instead calling it a zionist regime. Not surprisingly, the endorsed the creation of a palestinian state in iran and the finance various palestinian cause is, among them the islamicjihad and palestinian cause is, among them the Islamic Jihad and how palestinian cause is, among them the islamicjihad and how mass hamas groups. We can talk to the middle east editor for the bbc, jeremy bowen. Would you say these claims are true . The americans are encouraging them. Donald trump is tweeting that this is a wonderful development, effectively, but, you know, if they have evidence the cia is behind all of this, fine, lets see it. Theres a long history in a run of foreign intervention, governments being overdrawn, in the 50s and elected leader was overthrown by the americans, the cia and britains m16 in the 50s, so those comments for iranians pressed some important buttons but, norma, right now, to me it looks like a pretty spontaneous, initially very spontaneous anyway, outburst of protest no, right now to me. Why has it spread quickly . People are discontented, and because as well i think they are pretty sick of living in an authoritarian society. Think they are pretty sick of living in an authoritarian societylj think they are pretty sick of living in an authoritarian society. I guess one of the pressures on president rouhani, he promised Something Different when he won the most recent election and he is struggling to deliver that. He promised he would turn the economy round as well and that has been hurt by years of sanctions, and years of corruption, mismanagement as well. He said he would do something about all those things and, yes, sanctions have gone away partly, and we can speak a bit more about that, but the internal staff, the corruption, mismanagement, inefficiencies, he has not sorted that kind of thing outcome and that is disappointing quite a lot of people. And he has been the butt of quite a few of the slogans as well in these demonstrations. His book about the sanctions and lets get into that. There is a bit of a divide between President Trump who loathes the deal President Trump who loathes the deal president obama cut with the iranians, and those who love this deal. Yes, the future of Irans Nuclear industry, if you like. Would they be trying to create Nuclear Weapons . The americans and the israelis, the british as well, they believe they were, and the question 110w believe they were, and the question now is what happens with that particular deal. Later on this month. There is a moment in fact when President Trump has to sign some very Important Documents which will continue the suspension of some of these sanctions, and if he does not sign them, perhaps he will decide that this is a time to put more pressure on the regime in tehran and he might consider this would be his opportunity as well of finally doing down what for him is this hated agreement with iran about its nuclear future. So this hated agreement with iran about its nuclearfuture. So later on this hated agreement with iran about its nuclear future. So later on this month there could be a real flash point and if these protests continue i think they may well feed into President Trumps decision making. You read there in 2009 when there we re you read there in 2009 when there were much bigger protests. How do you compare what you saw them with what you are viewing from afar at the moment . You were there into this inane. In 2009 there were a lot of people really angry that an election they believed had been stolen from them when you were there in 2009. These protests are different. In 2009 there were politicians in charge of those protest essentially who since then have been under various different kinds of arrests. This time there are no recognisable National Leaders who are part of it. There was one very clear objective of the protests, to do something about the election, and it morphed a bit into criticism of the regime. Now there are loads of different things, starting with the economy and going into politics, loads of things we have talked about. Now, that could be seen as a weakness but it could also be a strength, cause it could also be a strength, cause it is harderfor the resume to deal with something which keeps popping up with something which keeps popping up all over the place. In tehran, you know, it came down by the end when they were really cracking down on them, to demonstrations in a few different streets. Jeremy, thank you very much indeed. Jeremy bowen, the bbcs middle east editor. If you wa nt bbcs middle east editor. If you want regular updates from jeremy, you can follow him on twitter. And i cant believe jeremy you can follow him on twitter. And i cant believejeremy has not been following this. The israeli legislator has passed new legislation saying two thirds of the parliament would have to support giving any more territory to the palestinians. The biggest rise in train fares in the last five years commuters face this morning as they returned to work after the christmas break. The average ticket price went up by 3. 4 . Labour has renewed its call for the railway to be re nationalised while the government and the Rail Industry say the fares will help pay for improvements to the network. If we can continue to make savings by bringing the railways back into Public Ownership and stop wasting money on franchising, on the complexity of the arrangements between all these different companies, and we dont pay out dividends to state owned Companies Across the channel, we can keep that money in house. Across the channel, we can keep that money inhouse. For every pound passenger pays in fares, 97p goes into running and improving the railway, but also with more people using the railway it means we have more money to invest. This is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. Our lead story is the Supreme Leader of iran has called protesters enemies and this follows days of protest. Lets look at the main stories from the bbc world service. The ambassador to the un says the usa will withhold millions of dollars in aid to pakistan for failing to cooperate with the fight against terror. President trumps tweets on the subject have already angered pakistan. In bangladesh, an arrest warrant in connection with petrol bomb attacks on a bus during a protest in 2015 that killed eight people. That is from bbc bengali. Lots of you have been reading this on the bbc website, the weather getting bitterly cold in the usa, reaching as far as florida with warnings as far as texas to the atla ntic warnings as far as texas to the atlantic coast. The east of the usa is also set for another freeze at the end of the week. This is logan paul, 22, and a youtube star, and he has issued an apology after issuing a video that show the suicide of a man injapan. The video had already been watched 6 million times and of course copies are still circulating although it has been taken down. This is his apology. It was obviously plan and the reactions you saw were raw, unfiltered. None of us knew how to react or how to feel. I should never have posted the video. I should have put the cameras down. And stop recording what we were going through. There were a lot of things i should have done differently, but i didnt, i should have done differently, but ididnt, and i should have done differently, but i didnt, and for that, from the bottom of my heart, im sorry. I didnt, and for that, from the bottom of my heart, im sorrylj have been talking to the tech reporter at buzzfeed, katie, have been talking to the tech reporterat buzzfeed, katie, in have been talking to the tech reporter at buzzfeed, katie, in new york. Yuji peiser three strikes policy, youtube has a three stroke policy. They took this down after one strike, but i think it raises questions. His fans are typically young teenagers, tweens, kids, andi typically young teenagers, tweens, kids, and i think it has left a lot of people wondering, what are these young people seeing . What are they doing, youtube to shake this. He makes a lot of money with youtube and they make a lot of money with them to shape this. What policy protocols are being put in place to make sure completely tasteless video like this is no longer posted . guess the popularity of some of these youtubers is that they are seen as these youtubers is that they are seen as not being monitored by youtube or indeed by anybody else . Seen as not being monitored by youtube or indeed by anybody else . |j think that is certainly true. Youtube is not like a television network. They dont own logan paul. He is free to upload videos, as are you or i, as much as he wants. He shot videos for their Premium Products but that was in 2016, and i think itjust products but that was in 2016, and i think it just leaves products but that was in 2016, and i think itjust leaves a lot of questions of moderation, and what are the rules, and, you know, how did he not know in the first place that posting a video like this would bea that posting a video like this would be a terrible idea . Is there nobody guiding or shaping the types of content young people are seeing from these incredibly popular creators. Content young people are seeing from these incredibly popular creatorslj was watching not just these incredibly popular creatorslj was watching notjust the video but responses to it. I saw one already has 20 Million Viewers and almost 200,000 comments responding to it. I guess the whole story is highlighting the reach that some of these youtube stars have . Yes, and there have been a lot of people who have actually come out in support of logan paul. Within the Youtube Community there is this sort of defensiveness of people who think youtube is too restrictive and there is this war between the creators and youtube. It is a very strange confusing tension there. Lets turn to the middle east, because as you will know resolving the conflict between the israelis and the palestinians is incredibly difficult and in the Israeli Parliament may have made it even more difficult. This vote by israeli mps would virtually make any peace deal with the palestinians that involves ceding control of part ofjerusalem much more difficult to get through the Israeli Parliament, because now instead of taking 61 votes out of a possible 120, it would take at two thirds majority, that 80 votes, and this really gets to an issue at the heart of the israel palestinian conflict, because the eastern part ofjerusalem was captured by israel in the 1967 middle east war and it was later annexed in a move not internationally recognised by israel. One israeli minister who pushed for this moving legislation said it would ensure the city of jerusalem remained the israeli United Capital and fortified israel, whereas the palestinian president s office said this, coupled with the announcement last month that President Trump recognise jerusalem as israels capital, amounted to a declarat